Still President of the Generalitats of Valenciana, even if he acts and for a few hours – at the expense of what Vox decides in the vote on the installation of Juanfran Pérez Yurca as the new President of the Council – Carlos Mazzone, has shared an apartment in Valencia since the summer of 2023 with who has been his most loyal aide for years, the President of the Council of Ministers, the Regional Minister of Communications José Manuel Cuenca.
The (acting) President of the Council comes from Alicante – the last term he spent as President of the Provincial Council, with a salary that exceeded the salaries of the then Socialist President Chimo Puig by 10,000 euros, reaching 95,521.04 euros – and for this reason he received, since the beginning of the term, an amount of 11,224.32 euros annually as compensation for accommodation. In this way, Mazzone’s salary, if we add this figure to the 80,173.92 euros he allocated to salaries and benefits, amounts to 91,398.24 per year.
Until a few months ago, while Mazzone was receiving the additional payment for accommodation, his chief of staff did not receive any, as confirmed by elDiario.es. However, recently, as can be seen on the transparency portal of the State of Valenciana, José Manuel Cuenca has also activated this bonus for his residence in Valencia, with compensation amounting to €9,559.44 per year – the regional secretary receives an annual salary of €68,281.92, an amount that rises to €77,841.36 if we add the housing supplement.
In this way, if we add the amounts they both receive for this concept, Mazzone and Cuenca have 20,823.76 euros per year to rent a house in Valencia, so they can have a monthly income of 1,735 euros to pay for the house. Despite the market prices in the capital of Valencia, and taking into account that it is an amount that is separated from the salary, unlike what happens to an ordinary citizen, the president and his chief of staff can without problems obtain the rental of a property in good condition in the city – it must be remembered that the president also has the possibility of living in the Palau de la Generalitat while in office, if he wishes, although this is not usual.
Cuenca declaration before Judge Dana
The Regional Minister of Communications, who in addition to being a close associate and partner of Mazzone, is also responsible for the communication strategy of the President of the Council regarding what happened on the afternoon of Dana on October 29, 2024, appeared this Tuesday as a witness before Judge Nuria Ruiz Tubara, the Cattaruga judge who is investigating the cause of the death of Dana and 229 people due to floods caused by the storm on that fateful day.
Cuenca announced that he had lost all the Whatsapp messages he had on his mobile phone, including the one he exchanged with Mazzone on the fateful October 29, after last June he had changed his device and had not made a backup: “I lost all my WhatsApp messages nine or ten months ago.”